The Burn of Water
by C.R Blackheart
Summary: when Arlina Dawnhallow's Parabatai and love of her life dies in her arms her mind is thrown into a living hell. tension then rises when a new darkness threatens the world of the Nephilim and a new young Shadowhunter boy comes to town. as Arlin feels like she Is getting closer to him day by day,her heart still wont let go of her lost Parabatai. a spinoff of the mortal instruments
1. blood and rain

Arlins feet smacked the rain slicked pavement as she ran. Her breaths became shorter and more desperate as her racing heart beat rang in her ears. This wasn't the plan; she wasn't expecting the hunt to be after a Greater Demon. Arlin stopped and whipped around expecting to see Charlie right behind her; he wasn't. Then he turned the street corner, Arlin gave a sigh of relief but it was short lived when right behind Charlie was the Greater Demon.

"RUN!" Charlie yelled to Arlin. Her panicked breath began again as she turned and ran toward the institute. Best case scenario both her and Charlie could make it to the institute in time to shut the Demon out. Worst case, they would both die at the hands of the Greater Demon, or worse be tortured. Arlin didn't fear death or pain, she really didn't fear a lot of things; but at this moment she was scared as hell.

Arlin reached the steps of the institute and began to climb them. When she got halfway she looked back. Charlie had pulled out his last seraph blade and was facing the Demon. Arlins weapons had been lost at some point during the attack, she was defenseless. Charlie raised the blade, but the demon was much faster and in one fluid motion, swung its sharp talons across his chest. The force of the blow sent Charlie flying back, and landing on the steps with a sickening _CRUNCH_.

"NO!" Arlin screamed in terror and rage. The Demon laughed with a whiney cackle. Arlin ran and picked up Charlie's seraph blade and straight toward it. She raised the blade over her head and screaming at the top of her lungs she brought the blade down and let it go. The blade whistled toward the monster then with a thud buried itself in the Demons chest. It stopped laughing and looked down at the wound; it gave Arlin a murderous look then vanished into nothing.

Arlin let go of her breath and she suddenly remembered Charlie. She ran over to him, her feet barely touching the ground, and knelt down beside her Parabatai. His breaths were shaken and his pulse fading. Blood poured from the wounds on his chest.

"I'm going to get help." Arlin breathed as she tried to get up. But Charlie grabbed her hand.

"Stay," he whispered. His hand was cold and weak. Thunder rumbled overhead and the rain began to pour.

"You need help Charlie." Arlin tried to hide the desperation in her voice.

"Look at me Arlin," his voice was weak and shaken; "there's nothing to fix."

Arlin stared at him. His blonde hair was plastered on his head with a mixture of sweat, rain, and blood. Down across his chest were three gashes in which blood oozed from them. The institute steps in which she sat covered in blood and rain. Arlin felt the rain drip from her now soaking wet hair into her face.

"No, you're going to be ok I promise." The tears rolled into Arlins voice.

Charlie let out a slow painful sigh. "You know I've regretted becoming your Parabatai ever since the ceremony." He said.

Arlins chest suddenly became very heavy. "What… I… why?" she stuttered.

Charlie mouth slowly curved up into an almost painful looking smile. Arlin head was spinning, any second now she was expecting him to jump up and yell, "Just kidding!" just like when they were kids. And then she would round kick his side then storm away for making her worried, but he would always follow her and apologize with a hug.

"...Because I could never be anything more." He breathed.

"What?" Arlin replied confused even more.

"Arlin look at me," Charlie pleaded.

Arlin matched her green eyes with Charlie's brown ones. Charlie's hand grabbed the back of her neck and she slowly bent toward him until his lips touched hers. Arlin had never felt so much in her life as her tears slowly mixed with the taste of blood and rain.

"I love you, Arlina Dawnhallow." He whispered when he pulled away.

"I love you, Charles waymark." She replied through a tear filled voice.

Charlie's eyes fluttered closed as he took one last sharp inhale. Arlin felt for a pulse but there was nothing. Only the tightening of her lungs and heart as the bridge connecting the two as Parabatai was shattered. Broken among the blood and rain.


	2. Lost

Arlin had not had a well nights rest since that night. The nightmares haunted her, griped on to her like a deadly vice. It wasn't like she could wake up and tell herself it wasn't real, she tried that many times; but what good does lying to yourself do?

Arlins eyes opened slowly as if they were trying to tell her to go back to sleep. Once her eyes opened she slowly sat up then, realizing she had a headache, laid back down. She wasn't sure how much time passed before she got up again, and honestly these days she really didn't care. One Arlin sat all the way up; she flung her covers to the side and swung her feet of the bed. Her bare feet tensed as they touched the cold floor. In one fluid motion she pushed herself off the bed and shuffled over to the window. Arlin took a peak outside the window, it was sunny. Arlin sighed to herself; she hated the sun, I was a sunny day on Charlie's funeral, he would have loved it. That day the sun glinted off the all the white attire, blinding.

Charlie's last words still whispered in Arlins ears "I love you Arlina Dawnhallow". Arlin began to change her clothes, and as she did she noticed the faded Parabatai scar on her now bare shoulder. One month, it had been one month of pain and loss. One month without Charlie. There had been moments where she would look too long at a knife of dagger and just imagine, but those moments ended when she told herself it's not what Charlie would want.

Arlin changed into some shadow hunter gear then began to walk to the training room where she would spend the day expressing her emotions in seven kinds of combat and weapons, just as she had done every day for the past month. There had been surprisingly little demonic activity this past month, but as usual Arlin didn't care. She was now trying to distract her mind of Charlie by naming what she was going to do when she got to the training room. When she reached the doors to the training room she noticed something off. The door was slightly ajar and _I heard it through the grapevine _was blasting through the crack. Arlin crept up to the door and peaked through, and inside she saw a dark-haired boy with a blade in hand, dancing.


	3. Behind the Door

Arlin watched in humor for a moment, whoever this boy was he was oblivious to the fact that she was watching him. Never in her life had Arlin seen someone put so much energy into one certain thing. The boy flipped his blade up instantly turning it into a microphone as he began soulfully singing into the top of it. His feet moved in circular patterns to the rhythm. The boy closed his eyes and threw his head back he sang a high note, and when he did he almost looked like he was in a funny kind of pain. She no longer could help it; Arlin let a giggle escape her lips as she watched him. The boy must have heard her because right at that moment, his startled expression found its way into his dance routine and he fell right into a wall of weapons, sending them crashing and clattering to the ground.

She stood there frozen a moment as she watched the boy slowly get up and recover from the shock of the mistake he had made. He looked around him to see the scattered selection of weapons, and then looked at the door. Arlin took off back to her room where she quickly closed the door. She wasn't certain if he saw her face, but she was certain that she would not be training today. As she took off her training gear Arlins mind wondered back to the time behind the door, in which she realized was the first time she had laughed for a month. Arlin sadly smiled at the idea, like welcoming an old friend. Arlin climbed back into bed laying there a moment, but she didn't want to sleep. She felt more alive than she had in a month. Then a knock at the door came.

As the door slowly opened an exasperating voice came across the room, "not that you plan on getting out of bed," It mocked, "but dinner is ready and Marian wants you to come down."

Arlin sighed; the voice mocking her was Steph. Steph had moved in the institute about a year ago when her last institute threw her out, which was no big surprise. Steph was defiant, risky, and a horrible person. She was everything Arlin wasn't. The only thing they had in common was the fact that they were both orphaned. When Steph first came here Charlie lead a mission downtown, it was a simple demon call. When they finally caught up to the demon, the only way possible to kill it was to sneak up behind it. But before Charlie could sneak up to it and kill it Steph ran up to it screaming. Normally Arlin would have automatically drawn an iratze for Stephs wounds, but healing like a mundane seemed like the best punishment for stupidity. If it where up to her Steph would have been long gone after that, but for some unearthly reason Marian, the head of the institute, decided to let her stay. Arlin didn't believe Steph felt any remorse, even when Charlie died.

After Steph left the room and closed the door Arlin sat up and looked over at the dresser, going to dinner in her underwear didn't seem appropriate, so she opened the dresser to pick out some clothes. It struck her as she looked at her clothes selection that she had worn nothing but night clothes and training gear all month. Arlin slid on a pair of skinny jeans and slipped a dark blue V-neck over her head, then fixed her hair up into a knot. Not wanting to be bare foot she also tied on her black converse. She looked at herself in the large mirror, it wasn't the most formal wear but it was good enough for today.

As Arlin slowly walked towards the dining hall she heard the soft mummer of voices floating through the door. She stopped in front of the door inhaling a quiet deep breath, and then slowly pushing open the door. Arlin froze as the conversation in the room stopped. She slowly turned to face the room. As Arlin scanned the room she saw Marian gave her a slight smile, she continued looking when her gazed landed on the crude smirk that came across the room from none other than Steph. Arlin looked her dead in the eye almost daring her to say something, but after a moment Steph rolled her eyes and began to continue with the conversation she was in before. Arlin watched Steph as she gave a flirtatious smile to the boy next to her. Arlins eyes diverted to Stephs next victim, when they stopped dead on his face. It was the dark haired boy from the training room.


	4. The Dinner

The boy was staring at her now. Arlin had always been good at reading people ever since she was a child, but for some odd reason she could not tell what this boy was feeling. She suddenly became very aware that she was staring at the boy and quickly turned her eyes to focus on the small tree in the corner of the room. As dinner was set on the table people began to take their seats, and Arlin sat in the seat she had always sat in. As she did she noticed how unfamiliar it felt to be sitting there again, She then noticed the empty chair to her left; Charlie's seat. Arlin had begun picking at her nails to distract herself when the dark haired boy sat down next to her. She looked at him and tried to hold back her emotions, there was no point in getting upset over him sitting in the only empty seat left. When Arlin took a quick glance around the room, she noticed others failing to discreetly watch her reaction to the situation. Then there was Steph, who had no worry over if Arlin saw her watching or not. In fact she almost looked amused. _This was a bad idea _Arlin told herself, and all throughout dinner she tried as best as she could to show no emotion at all. She even tried tuning out the conversation around the room Until Marian spoke up.

"So have you all heard about the Downworlder disappearances?" she said, trying to make conversation among the shadowhunters. A murmur of yes's and headshakes collided together and danced across the dining hall. Arlin had not been informed of this and was slightly curious, especially because of the strong relationship this _particular_ institute had with the Downworlders.

Marian silenced the crowd, "well apparently there has been a dramatic increase in the disappearances of vampires, werewolves, fairies, and other Downworlders according to Mr. Blackward." Marian had always believed in a strong connection to the Downworlders, so it was no surprise to Arlin that she had been discussing the issues with the head of the vampire clan. But unfortunately not everyone agreed with this belief, and it was easy to tell by the look of disgust on some of the guests faces. Arlin, having grown up with a few Downworlders as friends, was annoyed by the particular reactions of some of the guests in the room; and apparently so was Marian.

"A strong bond with the Downworlders has always been a strong belief of mine, "she fixed some of the guests with a cold stare, "and if you do not agree, you can either shut your trap or leave my institute." Then she gave the most polite yet sarcastic of smiles. Immediately a few faces in the room turned a dark shade of pink, and next to her Arlin could hear the dark haired boy faintly chuckle at the embarrassed faces of the few.

Dinner soon ended after that and all the guests slowly filtered out of the dining hall and went most likely to their rooms. There had been seven visitors today at dinner; the institute usually never had that many people here. Maybe one or two every couple of months, but never seven. _Maybe there here to investigate the Downworlder disappearances. _Arlin thought to herself as she walked down the dark empty corridors. She was still thinking of the possible reasoning's for the increase in shadow hunters when she bumped into a tall dark figure.


End file.
